My name is Emmanuelle Bryas, I am responsible for the management of scientific holdings at INRAP, the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research.

Our institute brings together 1,500 people spread over the entire French territory (mainland and overseas) who daily dig, study and put in shape the fruits of their discoveries and their research.

My job is to organize the collection, management and dissemination of the documentation produced and acquired during an excavation and its study phases. To do this, I administer an online catalog, Dolia, which allows referencing of all scientific reference collections and the online consultation of certain archaeological excavation reports. 13 librarians, located throughout France, provide the search optimization of these holdings in the catalog and access to the documentation whether via paper or digital via Dolia.

The librarians also have an important role in supporting researchers in their literary search. In the same vein, we are working on the development of bibliographic records on subjects which regularly turn up in the requests of our fellow archaeologists, or which correspond to current issues. These records will allow us to develop the riches, often underestimated, of the excavation report holdings.

One of the challenges of being a librarian today in a Research Institute, is the sharing and preservation of digital material produced by researchers: text, photographs, drawings, databases, geographic information systems etc. If our reflection on the operation report is now well underway, much remains to be done further to maintain and disseminate all the fruits and results of our research.